Pneumatic player.



E. T. TURNEY.

PNEUMATIC PLAYER.

APPLICATION FILED 13130.13. 1912.

1,123,627. 7 Patented Jan. 5, 1915.

' v D W FQ MENTOR M 77 BY W UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EUGENE T. TURNEY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR, BY :MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO AMERICAN PLAYER ACTION COMPANY, OF NEVT YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NE\V YORK.

PNEUMATIC PLAYER.

Application filed December 13, 1912.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Eocnxn T. TURNEY, a citizen of the United States, residing in the borough of Manhattan, city, county, and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Pneumatic Players, of which the following is a specification.

This invention aims to provide certain improvements which are especially applicable to pneumatic players for pianos and similar instruments. The tracker bar and the pneumatics which are controlled thereby are usually connected by means of a number of separate flexible rubber tubes. These tubes are of considerable length and weight and most of them are somewhat bent in passing from the tracker bar to the pneumatic. This invention provides for guiding and holding the intermediate portions of such tubes in such a way as to prevent the collapsing thereof and to hold their natural circular shape, thus greatly increasing the durability of this very perishable part of the apparatus.

The accompanying drawings illustrate an embodiment of the invention.

Figure 1 is a side view of one of the guide buttons with a tube bent around the same. Fig. 2 is a plan of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of a box or frame carrying the tracker bar, and the flexible tubes running from the tracker bar through the back of the frame and down to their several pneumatics. Fig. at is a section on the line et-A of Fig. 3.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings, the tracker bar A is supported at its ends in transverse partitions B projecting forward from the back C of the box or frame which carries the tracker bar and the roll shafts. From the back of the tracker bar a number of flexible tubes D extend through the back 0 of the frame and thence downward to their pneumatics D. Between the tracker bar and the pneumatics there are provided means for guiding the tubes and preferably gripping or holding them.

In the example shown the guides comprise a number of buttons E mounted in a row on the back C of the tracker carrying frame and a number of similar buttons F mounted on a supporting bar G extending. from right to left above the pneumatics. The rubber tubing is laced through these guide buttons Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 5, 1915.

Serial No. 736,513.

wherever necessary in order to secure the spread desired between the short tracker and the long line of neumatics. The buttons E are double, so that each of them will guide two of the tubes D; the buttons F being single so as to laterally separate each tube from the next one. The principle of construction is the same, however, for both styles of button. Each guide button is provided with an open grooved edge, the groove H extending in the direction of the length of the tube (and being in practice substantially a semi-circle so as to take a bend of any desired degree). This groove is of such a shape as to embrace the tube D transversely, that is at right angles to the plane of the groove. WVhen a tube is bent as in Fig. 1 the natural tendency is to spread in a direction transverse to the bend, as indicated in dotted lines at D Fig. 2. The

grooved button, by embracing the tube transversely prevents its spreading in this way and thus prevents its collapsing in the plane of the groove.

In many players the tracker bar is arranged to permit a slight longitudinal adjustment, as, for example, in my Patent No. 1,056,858 of March 25, 1913. This necessitates a slight looseness in the upper portions of the tubes. With this invention it is proposed to hold the tubes fast at an intermediate point by means of the buttons E, leaving a suflicient length of tube above such buttons to give the necessary looseness to permit movement of the tracker bar. For this purpose the buttons E are arranged so close together (see Fig. 2) that the tubes D are gripped between the two adjacent buttons E with suflicient friction to hold the weight of the upper portions of such tubes.

The number and arrangement or location of the buttons E and F may be varied to suit the requirements of the player. In the design shown there are four central tubes D whose path from the tracker to their pneumatics is so nearly straight that they need no guides and they pass through central spaces left in the two rows of guides. In addition to these four tubes there are eight others which pass through the central spaces in the upper row of buttons E, but are bent around buttons F in the lower row. The greater number of tubes, however, are bent first in one direction and then in another and two successive guides having their grooves opening in diiferent directions are used for each such tube.

The pneumatics are arranged in a line or lines substantially parallel with the tracker and considerably longer than the tracker, several times as long in fact, and the tubes are deflected or spread apart as they pass from the tracker or the frame C to the pneumatics. The deflection of the tubes near the center is least and the deflection of the end tubes greatest, and the sharpness of the bends in any tube depends on its distance from the center. It is this spread of the tubes which is the chief cause of the difiiculties above referred to and which is' taken care of by the guides of my invention equally well for tubes which are sharply bent as for those which are slightly bent. The tubes all lie in a single plane where they pass through the guides F and in two parallel planes where they pass through the double guides E. The grooves lie in the same directions as the portions of the tubes embraced thereby; so that the guides are arranged in groups or sets, a single set in the case of the lower guides F and a double set in the case of the upper guides E, the guides of each set having their grooves all lying in the same plane with a group of tubes. The guides E which are nearer to the tracker have their grooves opening toward the center of the group, while the guides E which are nearer to the pneumatics have their grooves opening toward the ends of the group, so as to secure the spread of the tubes as above described.

Though I have described with great particularity of detail a certain specific embodithe arrangement and combination of the parts may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the invention.

What I claim is A pneumatic player for pianos or the like having a tracker bar and a frame therefor, a line of pneiunatics of much greater length than said tracker bar, a number of tubes attached at one end to said tracker bar, the other ends of said tubes being spread apart and attached to said pneumatics and means for guiding said tubes and holding the portions nearer to said pneumatics in their spread apart positions, said guiding and holding means comprising two sets of guides one shorter set nearer to the tracker bar and the other longer set nearer to the line of pneumatics, each guide having an open curred groove for a tube to accommodate a bend therein and embracing its tube transversely to prevent collapsing of the tube, the guides of the set nearer to the tracker having their grooves open toward the center and the guides of the, set nearer to the pneumatics having their grooves open toward the end.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EUGENE T. TURNEY.

Witnesses:

D. ANTHONY USINA, LU'LU STUBENVOLL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

